Hello all,
We just finished responding to all of our remaining submissions today, Sunday, March 8, 2026. We thank you for your patience!
If you sent a submission within our window of January 1-10, 2026, and you have not received a response, please feel free to reach out to us through our Contact form or by dropping us an email at 34orchardjournal@gmail.com.
Stay tuned! We’ll be announcing our ToC for the Spring 2026 issue soon!
Kristi
Hello all,
Our response deadline is February 28. Due to staff illness and personal situations we are running behind, and still have about 125 pieces to finish considering. If you have not heard back from us, it means your work made it to our final rounds of consideration.
We are completing our selections as quickly as we can! Thank you for your understanding, and if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at 34orchardjournal@gmail.com.
I’m hopeful all of our responses will be sent by March 8.
Kristi
IT’S OFFICIAL! 34 ORCHARD is now a member of the CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses). The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses is a network of small, independent publishers who work together to support diverse writers, connect them with readers, and strengthen literary culture. They view publishing as a creative practice rooted in mutual support and community, and they actively engage everyone who cares about literature to ensure independent publishing continues to thrive.
We’re looking forward to participating and sharing and being part of something larger than us in helping keep great art in the world.
To learn more about their important work and what they’re about, visit here: https://www.clmp.org/about/what-we-believe/
I couldn’t be more thrilled about being part of a community that shares information and resources so that we can continue to provide high quality literature to our readers.
CLMP showcases many independent publishers of books and lit mags on their social media. If you love indie, we recommend following them on Insta to stay abreast of what’s out there.
Our submissions window is now closed. Thank you to all who submitted! That so many writers would love to be in our pages is an honor, and we appreciate every single submission, even if we don’t publish it.
If you haven’t received a response yet, we are working on it—we go as fast as we can so that your work isn’t sitting in our inbox eating up time it could be under consideration at another market that may not accept simsubs. We aim to have all responses sent out no later than February 28.
We’ve got some stellar selections for this year, so if you’re also a reader, you have much to look forward to!
In January of 2027, we plan to be open for fiction and poetry.
If you have any questions or concerns and need to contact us, you can either reach out to us through the form on our Contact page or email us at 34orchardjournal@gmail.com.
We wish you a productive, healthy, exciting 2026!
In gratitude,
Kristi and Anne
Submissions for SHORT FICTION are now open! The window will close at 11:59 pm your local time on Saturday, January 10, 2026.
We are considering fiction pieces for our Spring and Autumn 2026 issues from 1000 to 6000 words. Please note, we are not accepting poetry submissions this time around. We will welcome poetry again in January of 2027.
We do our best to respond as quickly as we can, and aim to have all responses sent out no later than February 28.
Our guidelines are here: https://34orchard.com/guidelines/
If you have any questions or concerns and need to contact us, you can either reach out to us through the form on our Contact page or email us at 34orchardjournal@gmail.com.
We hope you’re enjoying these waning days of 2025 and making plans for a wordful 2026!
Our submissions window for our 2026 issues is about to open. Submissions open at 12:00 am your local time on Thursday, January 1, 2026, and will close at 11:59 pm your local time on Saturday, January 10, 2026.
We are considering only fiction pieces from 1000 to 6000 words. Please note, we are not accepting poetry submissions this time around. We will welcome poetry again in January of 2027.
Our guidelines are here: https://34orchard.com/guidelines/
If you have any questions or concerns and need to contact us, you can either reach out to us through the form on our Contact page or email us at 34orchardjournal@gmail.com.
We love our cosmic horror—it asks so many questions and makes us think. We also love short films. So the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, going strong since 1995, is our jam.
Hosts Gwen and Brian Callahan go above and beyond—the quality of this festival, from curation and content to pledge campaign rewards and collateral material—is top notch.
Although the in-person festival happened in September, the streaming edition arrives December 5-9, 2025, and you’ll be able to enjoy over sixty short films, several full-length features, author readings, and panels right from your living room.
This year’s thirtieth anniversary theme is Cthulu on the High Seas, so in addition, some contributors to the Lovecraftian Microfiction/Challenge from Beyond books, which always accompany the festival, were instead asked to write an X-files-esque story surrounding The Emma, a two-masted schooner that plays into strange events in Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulu.” There are stories by favorites like Cody Goodfellow and John Shirley (34O editor Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s story “Compaction” is included too). The books will be on sale after the festival on Arkhaam Bazaar’s website.
If short films and cosmic/existentialist horror rocks your world, this festival is for you! You can purchase tickets for the December 5-9, 2025 streaming event here: https://hplfilmfestival.eventive.org/passes/buy.
Sometimes birdsong is dangerous.
If you love 34 Orchard and you want a volume full of tales that carry our vibe, don’t miss Darkness Most Fowl from The Godmother of Horror Press!
This anthology was invitation only, and so writers we’ve recommended and several 34 Orchard alums build terrifying nests in this bird horror anthology! Edited by #7 “The Last Days”’s Elaine Pascale and featuring stunning art by Michael Takeda (#11, “Kintsugi”), others are Zachary Kellian (#6, “Shrike Song”), Die Booth (#1, “A Murder”), Ernest Ògúnyẹmí (#7, “The Flute”), Leen Raats (#8, “The Solitary Man”), Nicola Kapron (#3, “The Bodies We Should Forget”), Selah Janel (#5, “Mister Skinandbones”), Rob Frances (#4, “Everything Fits If You Push Hard Enough”), Robert Mayette (#8, “The Milestones on That Path”), L.E. Daniels (#8/“Weird Witness”), and ten other popular voices. From grackles and creepers to magpies and nightjars, these flights of dark fancy will claw your heart every time you hear beating wings.
In the mood to be read to? Elaine has set up online readings! Schedule and days/times (with who’s reading so if you’ve got a favorite from a past 34O issue it’s easier to find them). Readings should be available at the YouTube link after the fact in case you miss the moment.
Wednesday, November 12 – 8 pm
Kiyomi Appleton Gaines “Flight and Fawn”
Lee Andrew Forman “Old Ways”
Hideki Nakazono “The Heavens Demand”
Holley Cornetto “Guilded Cage” (34 Orchard recommends her book We Haunt These Woods)
Nikki Kallio “The Cardinal” (34 Orchard recommends her collection Finding the Bones)
C. O. Davidson “A Parliament in the Woods”
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfoqUGjaJZs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/3972255883024644
Friday, November 14 – 7 pm
Nicola Kapron “Dirt and Ashes”
Robert Mayette “To Even Look at Me”
Ernest Ògúnyẹmí “Christmas Chicken”
V. Castro “Witches of Winchester”
Geneve Flynn “I Am Not Myself Today”
L. E. Daniels “Stomata”
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aTNA0KiITk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DnNac4kme/
Sunday, November 23 – 1 pm
Kristy Park Kulski “Magpie Teeth”
Leen Raats “Flock”
Selah Janel “Invasive”
Rob Francis “Skinflint’s Flock”
Die Booth “Little Gibbet”
Zachary Kellian “Predators of Paradise”
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ofVc4NK9w
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1453335772391314
Hi folks,
A bit of a post scheduling snafu means the post that the issue was available went live hours before the actual issue. The issue is now here at either of these links:
THANK YOU for your donations, and thanks for your patience! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us on our contact page.
Kristi
It’s here!
The twenty artists in this issue wander the corridors of longing, which is often considered a yearning for a person, object, or location. But it can mean so much more—and sometimes be the loneliest, most isolating emotion in the human experience.
As the purported “most wonderful time of year” approaches, for those who long for anything at all, it might actually be the darkest.
Welcome to the house so empty your own voice comes back to haunt you.
Welcome to 34 Orchard.
The downloadable PDF is designed so that it can be printed on double-sided paper for easy reading like a print magazine. As always, the issue is free, but there is a donation link should you choose to contribute.
If you like what you’ve read, spread the word!
34 Orchard 